I am in the process of getting parts for my 351w rebuild. I want to go to a hydraulic cam and lifter setup. Where do I start?

 

you can get them anywhere, or do you mean hyd roller?

 

Call Comp Cams. Explain to them exactly what you have and exactly what your torque, horsepower, and rpm goals are. They can help you spec in the parts you need and make a cam grind suggestion. You are going to need to know a bunch of specifics like what year motor you have, what type of heads, etc so have all that stuff ready when you call.

 

I second cowboy's suggestion. You also want to be thinking about what intake, carb, heads, pistons, and what type of driving you are going to be doing. You also need to know your transmission, stall converter if automatic, rear gear ratio, etc. The cam and lifters are a small part of a whole.

 

Early model blocks can be converted to a hydraulic cam w/o too much difficulty. You will need a special retrofit roller cam, with a smaller base circle. That keeps the lifter down in the bores and well lubricated.

For lifters, you have two choices. Link bars are quick and easy, just drop them in. But, they're not cheap.

You can also use stock Ford lifters, dog bones, and spider. You'll need to drill and tap two 1/4" holes in the lifter galley. And possibly grind a little bit around the lifter boss for clearance.

 

I have a 79 block with stock heads on the thing. It is originally out of a pick up. Had alot of miles on it, all of the bearings were worn down to the copper. The cam was scored pretty bad and you could tell where it had been walking on the lifters so its junk. The crank was in good shape as were the heads, but I am replacing those with some aluminum ones to get rid of some weight.

 

You mean you want to upgrade the cam to a hydraulic roller cam? Check out the CC Extreme Energy Retro-Fit kits. I bought this one myself for our 79 351w block. This kit comes with the lifters. You'll also need to buy the CC Retro-Fit Hold Down kit as well. Matched it with a set of Edlebrock RPM heads, intake and Thunder 600 carb.

 

The heads will help you more than anything. Not because of the weight, but because the combustion chambers in 79 were freakin huge from all of that government emissions crap.